


Unharmed and unspoiled

by randomisedmongoose



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Blood, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Gen, Gore, Hurt No Comfort, Psychological Torture, Torture, Whump, or very little comfort anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomisedmongoose/pseuds/randomisedmongoose
Summary: Vox Machina goes to Hell… and almost don’t come back. What if that little spined devil didn’t show up as serendipitously as it did?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Unharmed and unspoiled

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been a bit of therapy writing for me, writing a little bit here and there for two and a half years, mostly when I felt really low. So this is dark, guys, lots of potential triggers and squicks. Please read the tags and act accordingly.

“You seem weary. Let’s loosen your load.”

The chain devil’s voice was low, insidious, and full of malicious glee. It held on to the bars that bisected the cell and regarded the party with hungry eyes. Each of them was strung up, manacled to the wall by wrists and ankles. This was in no way an ideal situation, but one that they had put themselves in. There was a reason. There was a plan. Granted, they seldom adhered to the plan, but this time, the plan was important. The devil Percy had made the contract with, Ipkesh, had promised them help. It was in the contract, and if he broke the contract, he would be forfeit. Any second now, help would come, and they could proceed with their task.

Any second now.

Any second now…

Percy felt the familiar icy tendrils of panic crackling at the edges of his consciousness as the devil stepped back from the bars with a toothy smile and made a lazy gesture. Long chains unwrapped from around its midsection and clinked along the floor, leaving traces in the grime and dried blood. Each chain found a person and started to loosen their armour. The party looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Hey, fucker! Stop that, those are mine!” Grog kicked angrily at the chains rooting around in his gauntlets, to no avail.

“Hi there, friend, uh, is this really necessary?” Vax shifted uncomfortably and tried to shy away from the chain that was tugging at the Deathwalker’s Ward.

“Oh, yes, pretty. It most certainly is,” the devil purred. Its chains snaked in, removing armour, boots, helmets, until the party were stripped of all apparent defensive attire. The kyton’s eyes flared a deeper red and it rubbed its hands together, making the links clink and scrape.

“There, now. Isn’t that _much_ more comfortable? Aren’t we all just so much more at _ease_ now?” It carelessly shoved the pile of armour into a corner. “With all that taken care of, I think it’s time we get to know each other more… intimately.” The chains started to slither up again, wrapping around legs, arms, torsos. The links dragged across exposed skin, getting snagged in hairs, moving almost gently as if getting a feel for their bodies.

Tova snarled and bit into the chain, ripping it away from her shoulder, and spat it out on the ground. “Get that shit off me, you cockstain,” she growled.

The chain devil drew back a little, a note of feigned indignance in its voice. “Well now, that’s uncalled for. After all, I’m merely doing my job.” Its chains shot back again, wrapping around Tova. “And I do like my job so. Now, I was informed that you’re very special, oh so very special. I’m so very curious to get to know how special you are.” It regarded her curiously. “Now you… I remember you. Ahh… the bear woman! Yes, yes… we have already gotten to know each other, haven’t we? So pleased to get reacquainted, my dear.”

Tova spit at it, not quite reaching across the bars, and it laughed. “Hush now, lovely bear. I’ll get back to you in good time. Enjoy the show in the meantime.” It kept probing them, almost playfully, with a look of demented curiosity in its eyes. “The rest of you… Who are you? Where are your... sore spots?”

It jabbed a stiff chain length into Tary’s side and twisted it, right in his bruised ribs. To his credit he didn’t scream, but couldn’t contain a small yelp of fear and pain. The kyton giggled.

“Ah, yes. That’s what I want to know. What pains you. What breaks you. What hurts you.” It kept giggling as it drew the chain back. “So that we can do it again. And again. And again!” The devil’s grip on the iron bars tightened as it jabbed the chain into Tary’s side repeatedly, until something gave way with a dull crack.

Now, Tary screamed, and didn’t stop.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Vex muttered under her breath, trying frantically to pull her hands out of the manacles in some way. They were tight – she’d have to dislocate her thumb to have the slightest chance. She tried to get her brother’s attention, signalling to him to try to pick the locks. He was also scrabbling at the manacles and shook his head no – the lockpicks were in his pocket, and he couldn’t reach the pocket unless he picked the lock. Catch-22.

“Keyleth! Keyleth, can’t you do something-“ Vax broke off as he saw that a length of chain was wrapping around Keyleth’s throat, making her mute and gasping for every breath.

The devil chuckled, a low, terrible sound. “Do something? You want her to do something? I can make her do lots of things. She doesn’t need to _speak_ for any of it.” The devil grinned and tightened the chain, cutting off the airflow entirely for a few long seconds. Then, it slackened again, only for other chains to wrap around the bottom of Keyleth’s robes and rip them off with one hard yank.

“No! No, please, not her, take me, I’m fucking begging you, please!” Vax was tugging desperately at the chains, trying to get to Keyleth.

The chain wrapped around Keyleth’s throat didn’t release its grip. Instead, the devil grinned and lazily flicked a length of chain forward. On its end was a jagged hook. The hook slithered around Keyleth’s leg and dug in. It slowly circled her leg downwards, tearing the cloth and digging a spiralling, bloody groove. Keyleth’s eyes were wide with panic. The chain devil sighed happily as Vax screamed incoherent abuse at it, begging it and cursing it in turn.

“Ah, so there _you_ are. A noble, self-sacrificing man. You would bear the pain so courageously, wouldn’t you? But if I do _this_ -“ It ripped the hook from the bottom of Keyleth’s leg, severing her Achilles tendon. She went stiff with pain, but the only sound that escaped her was a strangled groan. “ _That_ hurts you. How economical – I only need to mutilate one of you to see both suffer. Don’t worry, lovebirds. We’ll keep you two together, for a long, _long_ time.” It wrapped a length of chain around Vax’s neck and forehead, bending his head to the side, forcing him to look at Keyleth. Tears were streaming down his face.

Tary was screaming, a high-pitched, terrified keening that didn’t seem to end. The devil had wrapped a length of spiked chain around his chest and was slowly contracting it, pushing the sharp spikes into his flesh and further abusing his already broken ribs. It looked at the artificer with disgust.

“Oh, it’s too _easy_ ,” it drawled. “You just aren’t much of a challenge, are you? Weak-willed, weak-bodied, worthless. You’ll break with no effort at all. Such a fine lemure you’ll make.” It let go of Tary with a disdainful flick of the chain. He coughed and sobbed as he tried to fill his lungs without moving his chest.

“But what about you?” It turned its attention to Percy with what seemed to be a slight hesitation. “There is something about you.” It tapped a rusty spike against the stone beside Percy’s head pensively. He tensed, trying not to provoke it. The panic was rising, dulling his thoughts even as he tried desperately to think of a way out. Without him realising it, a trickle of smoke rose from beneath his collar, winding upwards and snaking around the spike. The devil gasped and pulled the spike back, almost as if the black tendril had burned it somehow. Then, it reached for it again, toying with it like a smoker with an especially beautiful smoke ring. 

“Oooh. Oh, I see. I’m not the first, am I? How delightful! Sometimes I do get tired of blushing virgins. Too bad it was one of those nasty, dirty demons, hmm? Poor fellow. What has been done to you? Will you tell me? Can we find out? Oh, let’s find out together, you and I.”

Percy could feel the cold weight of the chains as they wrapped around his ankles. They pulled him downwards, making the manacles that held him up dig painfully into his wrists. The ice was spreading in his mind even as the hot smoke was slowly pouring out from under his clothes, pooling around his feet like a cloying cloud. The devil pulled at him, slowly, slowly, stretching hid body until the pain was unbearable. Unbearable and oh, so familiar.

_No. Please, Pelor, please. Not again._

The ice was running down his throat, he couldn’t protest, he couldn’t scream-

“I can smell your fear…” The devil raised two chains, ending in long spikes, and let them hover in front of Percy. “It’s practically pouring off you. It’s delicious.” It licked its lips and thrust the spikes into Percy’s sides, piercing through the muscle and pinning him to the wall behind.

This time Percy couldn’t stifle his screams. He could feel the ice coating his heart, his lungs, making it impossible to breathe. He could feel himself losing focus, his precious, hard-won focus, staring at a spot on the ceiling, a reddish, lumpy spot that was probably part of somebody else, now that he thought about it, _had been a piece of some other poor soul that also made a deal with a devil a devil much like this one maybe or a devil just like her maybe that did the same sort of things that she used to do to him the same kind of chains and hooks and knives and pain so much pain-_

Vex could see Percy’s eyes widening, the pupils shrinking down to tiny dots, his mouth screwed shut so hard she could see the muscles bulging in his cheeks. He made no more sound, none whatsoever as the devil pinned him to the wall, punching spikes through his hands, nailing him like an insect to an entomologist’s board. Vex screamed for him instead.

“Motherfucking bastard, let me go and I’ll kick your ass- aaah!” A chain crashed into her temple, throwing her head to one side and leaving a bloody scrape.

“Oh, you all care so much for each other”, the chain devil said with a smirk. “How charming. How _humane_. I… Am going... To have... So. Much. _Fun_.” Each word was accompanied by another whipping from the chain, until it finished by balling up a fist-like knot of chain and punching her straight in the gut. Then it left her coughing and trying to shake the blood and sweat from her eyes.

The chain devil licked its lips again, then looked from Vex to Vax, then back again. “Well, look at you two. So alike. You are siblings!” It caressed Vax’s chin with a length of chain. “Oh, who are you going to look at, bleeding heart? Your sister or your lover?” It laughed pleasantly. “It would be so naughty of me to make you choose! I know, I’ll put you all up in a nice circle, so you can see each other the entire time.”

Grog stopped trying to swat away the chains around his legs and threw his hand out, actually managing to grab a length of chain and yank it away from the rogue. He squeezed as he growled at the devil.

“You leave him alone, you little asswipe!”

The kyton took a step back and let the chain fall limp. “Well now, you’re a quick one. So fierce! So protective!” It stepped in again, lounging against the bars as it regarded Grog with a calculating stare. The goliath stared right back and squeezed the chain harder in one huge hand, deforming the links until it broke and clattered to the floor.

“I’m gonna crush you to a pulp, you fuckin’ shit, I’m gonna rip you limb from limb-“

The kyton put a thin finger to its lips. “Oh, shush, shh… No need for that.” It looked Grog over, dragging a spike across his scars. “Oh, you’re a mean piece of work, aren’t you? You can take pain. Pain doesn’t bother you at all. I could whip you, and pierce you, and gouge you, and you wouldn’t flinch, and then you’d die and I’d be so disappointed with you.” It scraped the spike up along Grog’s neck, leaving a trail of blood. “Well, what shall I do then? However will I hurt you, big man?”

“Let me go an’ I’ll show you what hurt is,” Grog snarled, and tried to bite at the spike. It avoided his teeth and hovered instead, just by his left temple. The devil tapped its finger against its lips.

“This little mind of yours… so prone to being taken over. I can see it in you. You’ve been someone’s toy before.” It jabbed at Grog’s temple with the spike. “You’re so stupid. It wouldn’t be hard to steer you in the right direction, would it? Ah, yes. I’d just give you a little nudge, and you’d hold my pincers and knives for me with joy. You’d help me without a second thought.”

Grog recoiled from the spike. “No! I don’t wanna do that! They’re my friends! I-“

The chain devil’s eyes flashed again, inky black this time, and it held Grog’s gaze. The goliath tried to look away, but the eyes were like two holes into another world, huge and dark. His own eyes glazed over, as grey as his skin. His jaw fell open, limbs slack and without strength.

The kyton grinned. “You’ll do everything I say, won’t you?” Grog nodded. “Good brute. Now, if I would release you, what would you do to, say, the sister?” It nodded to Vex, who stared at Grog with mingled fear and pity.

Grog’s voice was slow and monotonous as he answered. ”I’d… I’d break her legs. Then I’d make her walk on ‘em.”

The devil clapped its hands. “Good boy! That’s very clever of you. Now, step down here, and-”

“Krix! You are needed by Overseer Zhushat for prisoner enumeration and status.” A small, stout, green-skinned barbed devil with a satchel slung over its shoulder stood in the entrance. As soon as it had gotten the larger devil’s attention, it shrank back in submission.

The chain devil snarled at it, then rolled its eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh. “I do despise such droll-”

As its gaze turned from them to the smaller devil, its chains relaxed a little, perhaps involuntarily – including the one around Keyleth’s throat. She took a deep, rattling breath, then gritted her teeth. She twisted her hand in a complicated gesture and muttered a word. The chain devil gasped and fell to its knees. The chains fell to the floor, twitching like severed spider legs. Several of them started to rust and break, and the few areas of visible devil-skin started to turn grey and brittle.

Grog shook his head. The grey veil lifted from his eyes and was replaced by absolute, incandescent fury. He squared his legs against the wall behind him. Using them for leverage, he pushed away from the wall, ripping the restraints from their foundations and tearing his skin open in the process. Bellowing and frothing with anger, he lunged at the bars and tore at them. Veins bulged on his arms; his eyes turned blood red as capillaries burst from the tension. Finally, the goliath managed to bend the bars enough to let him through. He took a flying leap and landed, huge hands extended like claws, right by the writhing chain devil. Weakened as it was from the Blight spell, it had no chance. Grog snatched it from the ground and tore into it bare handed.

As the goliath dealt with the kyton, Keyleth concentrated and shrank down into a small rat, dropping down on the floor and lay there a few moments, trembling, until she regained her own form. When she tried to stand, her mutilated leg buckled under her and she almost fell over, panting with pain. Vax sobbed and pulled at the manacles as he tried to reach her.

“Kiki! The picks, give me the picks, quick!” He gestured frantically at his side. She nodded and pulled herself up, using his body as leverage, and started rummaging in his pocket until she found the picks. With trembling fingers, they managed to get first his manacles open, then Vex’s. Vax threw the chains away and jumped down, cradling Keyleth in his arms on the floor as she coughed and rubbed her bruised throat. Vex grabbed the picks and started to free the others.

The little devil was edging towards the door, trying to look inconspicuous. Keyleth noticed it moving and ripped a small piece of iron from her component pouch and held it out.

“No you don’t- Hold!” she rasped. The devil froze in place, its eyes wide in fear and surprise.

Blind and deaf to the world, Grog beat at the fallen devil again, and again, and again, over and over until his hands were bleeding, white bone and pink sinew exposed where the skin on his knuckles had been ripped away by the metal. He didn’t stop until there was nothing left but a pulpy mass covered in gory lengths of rusted, twisted chain. When he was done, he stood up, silent, just looking at the ruin.

Tova helped Tary down, and he collapsed in the corner, rocking back and forth, hugging his knees and whimpering. Meanwhile, Vex was working frantically on Percy’s manacles. She got them open, finally, but he was still pinned to the wall by the spikes. Tova left Tary in the corner and held Percy up as Vex tried to pull them out as gently as possible. For all the reaction she got from him, she might as well have just ripped him down, spikes and all. Finally, she managed to wiggle the spikes free and lowered the gunslinger gently down on the ground. His jaws were clamped shut, neck muscles tense and eyes wide open, and smoke was trickling out from beneath his coat, pooling and mingling with the spreading bloodstain.

“Percy? Percy, please! Come back!” Vex frantically shook him by the lapels of his coat. No response. Hands shaking, she opened up the coat to look at his wounds. The sides of his torso and the palms of his hands were torn and ragged, blood seeping from the wounds. The smoke was rising still, pouring from each cut like steam. She pressed her hand against the largest cut and gently leaned her forehead against his.

”Percy. Darling,” she whispered. “Come back to us. It’s over. You’re safe.”

He didn’t respond, but she could feel his breathing becoming slightly calmer. She smoothed his hair down and kept pressing on the wound, murmuring calming words at him all the while.

Keyleth coughed and tried to sit up. “We need to… we need to heal up. We can’t – ah! – we can’t do anything like this.”

Vex gestured at Percy. “Could you- do you have healing prepared?”

Keyleth nodded hesitantly. “Y-yes… but what if we have to fight? And we still need to get out of here…”

Vex looked from Percy to the door and bit her lip.

“Um, please? I move now?”

Vax’s head snapped up; his eyes turning to the little devil that had been standing frozen in the doorway. He snarled and jumped up, snatching the devil and slamming it into the wall. It squirmed and squealed in his grasp.

“Where were you, you little shit?” Vax spat. “We were promised aid!”

“Am here! Aid, aid, I aid you- I have your things- Ipkesh said unharmed, unspoiled, I do for my debt!“ It grabbed at his hands and tried to wrench them away.

Vax banged it into the wall again. “Unspoiled? Unharmed? Does it fucking look like we’re unharmed?”

The little devil looked around wildly. “I- I- wait! Wait! You said heal? I fix! I make better! Let go and I make better! I do it for my debt, promise, promise!”

Vax grimaced and let it go with a look of disgust. The little devil scurried off, falling on the floor and jumping up again before it managed to slink out the door.

Vex kept gently stroking Percy’s hair. Finally, the tension started to lessen and was replaced with a violent trembling. She held him tighter as the adrenaline left him, leaving him crying in her arms. The group sat in silence, waiting and worrying, until the little devil came back, carrying an armful of dusty flasks and vials.

“Here, here, make better, make unharmed!” It thrust random bottles into Vax’s and Vex’s hands. “Drink, otherwise Ipkesh kills me, do now, do now, be unharmed. I pay my debt!”

Vex looked suspiciously at the bottles. They were all of the same general type – a thick, syrupy liquid in different shades of red. She tossed one over to Keyleth.

“Darling – can you take a look at these? They look like healing potions, but I don’t trust this little bastard.” She looked sidelong at the little devil, who was wringing its hands and smiling insincerely.

Keyleth uncorked a large vial and sniffed. “It’s- it’s a Superior,” she said in a hoarse croak. She sniffed another. “A Regular, I think. It seems legit.”

The little devil jumped up and down excitedly. “Yes, yes! Make-better for fleshy types! Drink, drink, I pay my debt!”

Vax eyed the spiny devil. “Where did you get these from?” he said as he started to distribute the potions among the party. 

“Spoils, spoils, I work the spoil-piles – many fine things, many fine things, things from dead fleshy types. You are unharmed now? My debt is paid! Take your things, do now, do now!” It started to pull things from the satchel and throw them at the ground – all their weapons and supplies, Tary’s helmet, the Bag of Holding. The satchel seemed to be an unending space of its own.

It looked relieved as the party stared to gather their things. “Now, you seek Hotis, yes? He is under the ceiling of Iskath, though Iskath is not in Mentiri this day. Go out, go right, left, straight, straight, left, straight, and right. Behind the iron door with the fanged grin. My debt is paid, goodbye!” When it was done, it scurried off before anyone else could make it do something.

They each drank their potions in silence. Vex managed to get one past Percy’s trembling lips, and breathed easier when the ragged cuts closed, leaving only faint scars. Vax was talking quietly to Tary, patting his back slowly and gently. Grog was just standing, breathing heavily, an empty potion bottle in one huge hand. Vex got up and put a hand on his arm.

“Are you okay, Grog?”

The goliath whirled around and slapped her hand away. His bloodshot eyes were filled with tears.

“None a’ yer. Will ever. Mention this. Ter me. Again.” Grog turned his head away, hands balled into fists. The bottle cracked. He let the bloody shards fall to the ground, snatched up his gear and marched out the door without a backwards glance.

“He’ll get over it.” Tova patted Vex’s shoulder, sighed and tugged one bloody hand through her matted hair. “I did. Come on.”

Tiredly, the party slunk out of the cell to continue their quest.


End file.
